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Donald Trump has called on his Attorney General to uncover the identity of the writer behind a critical op-ed which claimed his own aides were working against him.

Mr Trump has been furious over the anonymous piece apparently written by a member of his administration, which appeared in the New York Times on Wednesday, depicting a "resistance" force within the White House.

On Friday, Mr Trump called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the head of the US Justice Department, to open an investigation to unmask the senior official behind the critical piece.

"Jeff should be investigating who the author of that piece was because I really believe it's national security," Mr Trump said. He added that if the author has a high-level security clearance, "I don't want him in those meetings."

It is an extraordinary step as the Justice Department, which is intended to act independently, does not usually investigate leaks to the press unless classified information has been disclosed.

"Let's assume it's a person with a security clearance. If they feel writing this is appropriate, maybe they feel it would be appropriate to disclose national security secrets, too. That person should be found out and stopped," Mr Giuliani said.

Paul Ryan, the House Speaker, distanced himself from the idea of an investigation, saying he did not know of any role Congress would play in it.

However Senator Rand Paul, a Trump ally, suggested White House aides should be required to take a lie detector test.

Washington has been swept up in a guessing game to unmask the senior official who claimed staff were working to thwart Mr Trump's "misguided impulses".

The anonymous author, claiming to be part of the resistance "working diligently from within" the administration, said: "Many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr Trump's more misguided impulses until he is out of office."

"It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room," the author continued. "We fully recognise what is happening. And we are trying to do what's right even when Donald Trump won't."

The writer said Trump aides are aware of the president's faults and "many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations. I would know. I am one of them."

By email, by tweet and on camera, the denials paraded in Thursday from Cabinet-level officials- apparently crafted for an audience of one, seated in the Oval Office.

The denials and condemnations came in from far and wide: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis denied authorship on a visit to India; Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke chimed in from American Samoa.

In Washington, the claims of "not me" echoed from Vice-President Pence's office, from Energy Secretary Rick Perry, from Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman from Dan Coats, director of national intelligence, and other cabinet members.

Asked if he still trusts his White House aides, Mr Trump said: “I do, but what I do now is I look around the room. I say, ‘Hey, if I don’t know somebody. . .’ ”

He added: “We have a really well-run, smooth-running White House. It’s a well-oiled machine. It is running beautifully.”

As he called for an official investigation, Mr Trump also offered his own rebuttal to the claims within the piece, telling reporters: "I’m highly educated and always did well, always did well, no matter what I did... I was great at business. Then I tried politics and I started off as president. Guess what happened? I won."